


under the shade of a tree

by towokuwusatsuwu



Series: Femslash February 2018: Tokusatsu Edition [1]
Category: Kamen Rider Ryuki
Genre: F/F, Fairy Tale Retellings, Femslash, Femslash February, Femslash February 2018, Swan Maiden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 18:10:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13552806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: Reiko Momoi has investigated strange and seemingly supernatural claims before. This isn't any different until she can't find any trace of Miho Kirishima at all.





	under the shade of a tree

Momoi Reiko had become a journalist because she was curious about the people and the world around her, even as a child. There had been phenomenon unexplained when she was still a child, and she had made it her mission to learn as much as she could to find out what caused the things that amazed her each and every day. As she grew older, those phenomenon became people, became scandals scattered between the lines of newsprint. Businesses were corrupt and driving smaller stores out of business, politicians got away with everything but murder (and sometimes that) and the money of the public disappeared into places no one seemed able to trace.

It was all of this and more that drove her to study journalism when she went to university. She had graduated with honors and taken up working with  _ Ore Journal, _ prestigious if it was small and giving her plenty of room for growth and plenty of freedom to look into whatever she wanted to. Her name quickly grew into one that the public respected and those who had something to hide learned to fear. Needless to say, she was proud of her reputation.

“Did you see this?” Shinji, their newest hire, drops a small notebook down in front of her, his familiar messy scrawl visible in traditional outline style. “I thought of you when this call came in. This seemed like something that might be interesting to you.”

Pausing her own article, Reiko pulls the notebook closer and bends over it, narrowing her eyes as she struggles to make the words in front of her mean something. “What is this?”

“We got a call where someone swears he saw a woman turn into a swan. I thought that might be something you’d like to look into,” Shinji says.

With his explanation, the words in front of her start to make some sort of sense and Reiko sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Shinji, we don’t… Look into supposedly supernatural cases like this one. It’s probably just a hoax of some kind.”

“There’s a Russian myth about swan maidens,” Shinji tells her, raising his eyebrows at her. “You telling me you’ve never heard of it? I thought you’d be all over that in a heartbeat.”

The mention of the myth makes Reiko press her lips into a thin line, and now she understands what Shinji means. The tail of the swan maiden was something she had come across in high school literature and one of the many stories that stuck with her over the years. She remembered it because every time she thought of men taking advantage of vulnerable women, she was infuriated, and she rarely ever forgot about it. The story went that men would steal the feathery garments that swan maidens used to transform back into swans, forcing the women to marry them. How could she, in her right mind, forget such a story?

She understands why Shinji brought it to her attention now instead of just looking into it himself; it was far from the first time that  _ Ore Journal _ had something supernatural reported to them. There had been instances that even Reiko’s determined research could not explain, but Shinji had treated all of them like truth unless it could be proved otherwise.

Reiko combs her fingers through her hair. “A man reported this?”

“Which is why I told you about it in the first place. I thought you would probably want to look into it if men were the one seeing her.” Shinji beams at her, obviously pleased with himself, though Reiko still says nothing. She isn’t sure  _ what _ to say to him. “So, do we want to look into it? You know I’ll go with you if you are interested in it.”

Sighing, Reiko nods up at him. “Yeah. Yeah, okay, let’s go.”

The chances of this being the real thing are slim to nothing, but Shinji is right; Reiko doesn’t want to end up not believing and have something terrible happen behind her back. It isn’t like she doesn’t have time; she has two in-progress articles and they have more than enough content to hold them over for two to three weeks while they look into this. Besides, they had one article about a psychic that none of them had been able to disprove his abilities, and the article had gotten them quite a lot of traffic when everyone figured out that Tezuka Miyuki was the real deal. If they end up being wrong, then all they waste is a little time.

On Shinji’s half-scribbled list of information, they have a location; the river is not far from where Reiko’s apartment is, so they head there first. Most of the riverbank is clear of any trees or heavy foliage, making it a popular place for couples to walk. However, right behind Reiko’s apartment building, the trees are heavy and the bushes are dense enough that they have to walk all the way around them to make it to the edge of the river.

“Do you see many swans out here?” Shinji asks her, kicking a rock near the edge of the river into the water, the small  _ plop _ making the tiny fish nearby scatter.

“I’ve never seen any swans out here, but then I also don’t tend to look. I’m sure they’re around during the spring, though.” When she had been a child living out in the country, there had been a pair of swans who returned nearly every year to lay their eggs and tend the hatchlings until they were large enough to fend for themselves. “Look for anything. Feathers, footprints…”

Shinji nods and heads in one direction while she stays where she is, crouching down and focusing her attention on the soft earth next to the river. It’s muddy here, and any evidence left behind might have already been washed away… Or easily wiped away by someone looking to conceal their identity. Reiko wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a swan maiden would be smart enough to wipe her own footprints away before leaving.

“Excuse me?” An unfamiliar voice has her looking up to see a woman in a brown leather jacket leaning nearby. “What are you two doing out here?”

Reiko stands up slowly, smoothing her suit skirt and admitting to herself that she and Shinji must look strange out here poking around. “We’re researching out here. We’ve got an interesting report from someone and we were just following up on it. If it makes you feel any better, I live in this apartment building on the 3rd floor. That’s my window up there with the blue drapes.”

The woman looks up toward the wall before turning back to her. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was just… It seemed weird to see people out here because usually the couples that walk along the river are together and they don’t come back this way. I’m Kirishima Miho, and I live on the top floor. That’s my window with the white lace curtains.”

Reiko makes a show of looking up toward the windows, but she doesn’t think too much of it. The apartment building she lives in is a nice quiet one and there have been no break-ins that she knows of, so it makes sense for one of her neighbors to be concerned seeing her and Shinji out here. Just like Miho had said, people did not usually come out here..

“What was reported?” Miho asks, cocking her head at her.

“It’s going to sound ridiculous, but maybe you can answer a question for me. Have you seen any swans out here?” Reiko asks.

Miho looks thoughtful for a moment, but then shakes her head. “No, can’t say that I have. Why? Something reported about the water fowl around here? Because all I’ve seen are a few odd ducks, I think they might have nested further up the river.”

That sounded about right. Reiko sighs and blows her hair back off of her forehead; the chances of any of this being true were always going to be low, right?  _ Still, _ she thinks,  _ one woman not seeing anything unusual doesn’t have to mean anything. _

“Reiko-san!” Shinji calls out from a few feet away, and Reiko glances over at him. “I found something. What are you looking at, anyway?”

“I was talking to one of my neighbors. She was just asking what we were doing, and—” Reiko turns to look at Miho once more, then freezes when she finds the space besides the tree empty. Frowning, she climbs a little higher onto the bank, until the line of bushes stops her, but she doesn’t see any signs of anyone nearby. “Never mind. What did you want to show me?”

The space of wet earth beside the water is what Shinji stands beside; Reiko crouches down and picks up a nearby stick, poking at the soft earth, watching something appear in front of her.

Muddy feathers, badly damaged and streaked with filth. But swan feathers nonetheless.

* * *

There are dozens of stories when it comes right down to it; Reiko spends half of her time researching those stories, lining them up side by side and looking for inconsistencies between them while she looked into Kirishima Miho. As it turned out, there was no woman in her apartment building going by that name and when she walked around the back of the building to look up at the curtains, there was no white lace to be seen. If she had looked that afternoon instead of ignoring it in favor of her current case, she might have known that and been able to do something about it. As it stood, she might have lost a valuable lead.

She doesn’t mention it to Shinji, though. Instead, she keeps that line of thought tucked away to herself and chases stories around the city. It’s difficult during the summer when everything is sweltering and hot and she can barely think straight without going insane.

Shinji never asks, either, though she supposes he had probably forgotten seeing her do anything strange as soon as she gave him her undivided attention. That would make sense for Shinji, all things considered. She knows exactly what kind of person Shinji is.

It surprises her, then, when the two of them are out to lunch and she sees Kirishima Miho in the crowd, threading her way through, her jacket in place despite the heat.

Reiko doesn’t know what possesses her to push up from her seat and try to follow the young woman through the crowd, but she does and she hears Shinji calling out behind her before he finally gives up and gives chase, no doubt doing his best to keep up with her. She doesn’t make it easy for him; even in her low heels she can thread her way through the crowd at a quick pace and she pushes herself to keep up, aiming for the woman only a few meters ahead of her. She has questions and she won’t walk away without answers. If Kirishima Miho had lied to her, then she had to have had a reason.

She doesn’t see the man chasing Miho at first. Her attention is too focused on Miho—  _ Is that even your name? Who are you? Why did you lie to me?—  _ and so it only makes sense for her not to notice. It’s not until someone shoves her out of the way and cuts through the crowd with brute force, gripping the shoulders of Miho’s jacket and ripping it away from her, that she sees him.

Everything happens very quickly, then. Miho twists around with a look of betrayal in her eyes while the man leans back, triumphant. She shouldn’t stop running, not over something as pointless as a jacket. But Reiko careens into him just the same, digging her foot into the back of his knee so that he hits the pavement. She grabs Miho’s jacket from him before he can do anything with it, shakes it off, and plants her foot firmly into the small of his back to keep him still. It gives Shinji enough time to catch up, hands on his knees, panting heavily.

“You don’t take things from women!” Reiko snaps at the man, then holds the jacket out to Miho. “Here. He took this from you. I’m sorry.”

Miho studies her hands as if she expects Reiko to yank the jacket back out of her reach, then seizes it and hugs it close to her body. Reiko thinks she might be imagining the flash of white she sees on the interior but thinks nothing of it otherwise. “Thank you. He’s been harassing me for weeks now. I didn’t think I’d get away from him this time.”

“You should go, miss. We’ll call the authorities and have him dealt with,” Shinji promises.

Miho doesn’t look at him. She stares at Reiko with wide, wide eyes. “Thank you so much.”

She disappears into the crowd and Reiko thinks nothing of it as she pulls out her cell phone to make contact with the authorities, still fuming over the fact this man had tried to attack Miho for no reason that Reiko had been able to see. Not that any reason would be acceptable or good enough; Shinji wrestles the man into a sitting position and they wait for the police to arrive. The detective who arrives introduces himself as Sudo and gives the man on the ground a distasteful expression before slapping cuffs on him and asking questions. When Reiko mentions Miho’s name, Sudo shakes his head before tucking his pen into the spiral of his notepad.

“Should have known,” he says before allowing his partner to haul the man to his feet and drag him off. “She’s had quite a few men chasing after her that we’ve had to take in.”

Reiko frowns at the words and wishes she would have kept Miho around so she could speak to the detective herself. Maybe she needs police protection? “Why would so many men chase after her like that? I thought he was going to hurt her when I saw him.”

“You were probably right to make that assumption. I know that men have threatened violence in the past, but Kirishima never stays around once we’re called.” Sudo looks thoughtful as he starts toward his car, then turns back to Reiko. “Her coat must be very expensive. They always try to take it.”

* * *

“You sure you don’t want to write an article about this?” Shinji asks her the next afternoon while she’s finalizing the last few edits to her new article for publishing. When Reiko gives him a look, he leans back with his hands in the air. “Right, right, sorry for asking.”

A knock from the door has their colleague, Shimada, up and walking. “I’ll get it.”

“Miho deserves her privacy,” Reiko says simply. “We aren’t going to publish her story.”

Shimada loudly clearing her throat has Reiko and Shinji both turning to see what she wants and Reiko freezes at the sight of none other than Kirishima Miho standing in the doorway, her hair up and her face done up with just enough makeup to make her look all the more striking. Before Reiko can say anything, Miho pushes her way into the room and almost knocks Shinji out of his chair in an effort to get closer to her, her hands clasped tightly around something. This close, Reiko can see something small and soft and white poking out of the very ends of her sleeves and wonders what the lining of it must be. Feathers, perhaps?

“You’re okay!” Shinji looks surprised, even elated. Had he been worried about her? Probably.

“I almost wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to find you,” Miho says, her voice high and excited, and her eyes are glittering. “But, well, it was in the news. What happened.”

Of course it had been. “I’m sorry about that. We weren’t going to report on it at all.”

“Normally, I’d be annoyed, but not this time.” Miho almost bounces on the balls of her feet and Reiko can’t hide the way a smile tugs at her lips. “I needed to find you.”

Reiko cocks her head, her eyes falling on Miho’s hands. “Why did you need to find me?”

“Well, it’s probably for the best if we’re married in the sense of the human word as well,” Miho says.

Reiko opens her mouth to say something— what, she isn’t sure, but  _ something— _ but Miho ignores her and opens her hands to reveal a dark velvet box there. She opens it, and Reiko expects an engagement ring and instead is surprised to find a pair of matching silver bands. They look like coiled feathers; Miho plucks them out of the box and takes Reiko’s hand, sliding one of them onto her finger. It fits perfectly, somehow.

“Now hold on.” Her boss, Okubo Daisuke, stands up from his desk. “What do you mean  _ human? _ And you can’t just barge in here and demand Reiko-san marry you and—”

Shinji interrupts him. “Reiko-san! Do you think she might have been what everyone was—”

“Stop it, both of you.” Reiko doesn’t have to raise her voice; Miho just cocks her head at her. “You knew what we were looking for at the river, didn’t you?”

“I did, but I couldn’t just tell you. I suppose you saw that happens when my secret gets out back in the crowd.” Miho smiles, though the expression is raw and humorless.

“Well that explains quite a bit.” Reiko looks down at the ring on her finger, the slim feathers somehow looking graceful and delicate, and can’t imagine how such a thing could have been crafted. It looks unreal. “But this is what I don’t understand. I handed you your jacket back. That’s all I did. Surely that doesn’t actually mean all that much—”

“But it does! A human actually giving one of us our skin back is incredibly important. Among our kind, that’s a highly unusual act since you tend to steal them.” Miho smiles at her, looking incredibly pleased, but Reiko just blinks at her, not sure what to say.

Shinji comes to her rescue, looking puzzled. “Is it like a marriage proposal of some sort? She gave you your jacket back and that… Is that really how it works for you?”

Miho nods. “It does. Unless she doesn’t want to accept my proposal in return.”

Reiko twists the ring around her finger, not entirely sure what to say. She’s never put much stock into fairy tales after all, and even investigating this one with Shinji— Had he known, somehow? He had brought the story up to her, after all, and she knows Shinji is smarter than most people would ever dare to make him out to be. Had he know, and asked her, because—

“Reiko-san, that’s exciting! Magical and romantic, don’t you think?” Shinji grins at her and Reiko looks over Miho’s shoulder at him and wonders if there are parts of him she doesn’t even know about. “Are you going to accept her proposal or not?”

“Well.” Reiko stops twisting the ring and sets her jaw a little more firmly, “someone has to protect her from all of the horrible men in the stories, right?”

* * *

The earth on the riverbank is soft and muddy in places; Reiko has to wear tennis shoes to keep her nicer shoes from sinking in and getting destroyed. She had never thought of herself as someone to walk along a river with a loved one before, certainly not in such a romantic way, so it only makes sense that she walks alone. Miho glides down the river instead, impossibly graceful and effortless, the water rippling softly around her. Every few minutes or so, though, she uses one beautiful wing to splash Reiko’s shoes with water.

“That’s rude, you know,” Reiko informs her. “If you keep doing that, you’ll have to swim alone.”

Miho responds by splashing her with water again and swimming ahead slightly faster.

Reiko carries Miho’s jacket folded neatly beneath her arm; every so often a hand steals inside to touch the soft lining, the smooth white feathers she needs to take her swan form. It had been a part of her life that she had to protect the jacket at all costs; losing it meant losing the water and the skies, and so when she swims, Reiko holds onto it for her. When she comes onto shore, Reiko gives it back to her. A constant rhythm marked by the ring on her finger.

In the protection of the trees and bushes, Miho steps onto the shore and Reiko crouches down, wrapping the jacket around her. Miho catches a bit of Reiko’s hair in her beak, not pulling it, just doing it because she can. In answer, Reiko strokes the smooth line of her neck.

It only takes a few moments for Miho to regain her human shape. She tucks herself under Reiko’s arm with a small smile before darting forward to steal a kiss. She tastes sweet and fresh and clean, and when Reiko runs her fingers through Miho’s hair, she comes away with a single white feather, downy and soft, that she lets the breeze take from her hand and carry away.

She leads Miho inside to her apartment.


End file.
